


Brotherly Love

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-12-22
Updated: 2003-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-25 05:29:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1633979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Familial bonds are so easily twisted, misinterpreted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brotherly Love

**Author's Note:**

> Written for anaimos

 

 

Title: Brotherly Love 

Polyneices doesn't hate his brother. 

How could he? They're _brothers_ , and even if that means nothing to Eteocles, Polyneices remembers how close they once were. He remembers their play, innocent and free -- they knew how to share, then. He remembers that once, they cried at being separated. 

And now they're separated once more. Cast out, abandoned, betrayed, Polyneices thinks, but none of them are strong enough words to describe the depths of the torment. _Disowned_. 

In the heights of the betrayal, Polyneices vowed to retake the control his brother denied him: vowed to take by force what his brother had taken by guile.   
 

* * *

  
Eteocles doesn't hate his brother.

He's irritating, of course, and he doesn't know when to say quits, but they're _brothers_ , dammit. Why can't Polyneices just come to some kind of agreement and let this ridiculous stand-off come to an end? Eteocles doesn't want to fight, not anymore. 

He's a bit sorry now that he seized the throne. How can he back down, though, in the face of his older brother's might? He would look ridiculous, dishonorable, shamed. Not in front of his brother, he can't, and so he will fight. 

And they both will lose.   
 

* * *

  
Antigone hates her brothers. She honors them, yes, but she hates them. There's no space for her between them; there never has been.

And now there never will be. In death, they still mean more to each other than she ever could. She's willing to risk her life to see them both properly buried; it's the honorable thing to do. 

All the same, she hates them. They squandered their young lives, unwilling to lose face in front of the other, playing their silly games to the end. 

But they are not the only ones whose young lives are forfeit to old men's games. 

 


End file.
